Unlikely Heroes Studios 2020
Written by John Pence
Illustrated by Erwin J. Arroza
"Up from the Skies" is a surreal, magical story of a space prince who crash-lands on earth during the last ice ages and is rescued by a human hunter. Together, they survive hungry mega-fauna and develop a strange friendship despite the vastly different worlds they came from.
Unlikely Heroes Studios is a company I really love and everything that I have read from there so far has been of the high calibre in terms the quality level of their work. I still want to see more of Super and The Surgeon as they are two books that showcase how the creators can share their passion that the reader picks up on. This book is currently running on kickstarter and I urge you to support this. I would really like to see Unlikely Heroes Studios become a large part of the discussion in the comics world.
By all the gods above and below, I was not prepared for a story like this. I kid you not I almost felt like crying when it got to the last page. That moment you realise your choked up emotionally and the surprise that overtakes you when it dawns on you yeah I think this alone is the highest praise I could give this story. Still the way that this is being told is downright beautiful. The story & plot development we see through the sequence of events as well as how the reader learns information feels so fresh and innovative and at the same time it feels familiar, known and even updated from that. The character development is phenomenal and it really is more in how we see the characters act and react to the circumstances and situations they find themselves in. The pacing we see is spot on and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists and turns it has this mesmerising and enchantment about it that creates the ebb & flow for the book.
While I have no idea if John was writing this as a story of pure friendship or if what I see as a romance budding here was intended it really works on both levels. The fact that there are no names given throughout this story is something that I almost marvel at but on an instinctual level it makes perfect sense to me. Also how the tribe's song plays into what we see here has this whole mysticism kind of feel that finds a light in your soul.
Erwin's work on the interiors here blew me away. I sincerely hope that this is hand painted as it feels like it could be or It could be computer assisted but I want to think that brush strokes from the mind, through the eyes and out by the hand work happened here. I think it would heighten the magical quality in my own minds eye. Regardless everything that we see here is so well thought out and executed that it brings into this land with these people and this wildlife. There is this sense that everything is truly alive and by all that heaven allows the eyes, the eyes are windows and the life that shines within them is magnificent. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show such an accomplished eye for storytelling. The colours oh wow the colours, my words would pale in trying to describe them.
In a time when language was the bare minimum and all life was able to communicate with each other you believe in the harmony of life. When hunting is done to feed and clothe and nothing more is taken and somehow there is respect and honour between hunters and prey it makes you long for a time like that. Of course they've got dinosaurs and sabre tooth tigers as well so killing machines don't play by rules and yet even that wouldn't deter you.
A story of destiny, friendship and love as well as that fear of losing the bonds that have been made. This is truly one of the most beautiful and powerful stories you are going to come across.
There are still about 12 days left of the campaign so head over to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/uhstudios/up-from-the-skies and help bring this to the world it deserves to be seen by all.